As I said in post 41, I think CASA has made some decisions based on "the vibe" rather than what CAR 206 actually says, then tried to interpret the rule to match their decision.
Ain't that the truth! I believe their contention was that the diesel fitter was receiving payment for his time (as a pilot flying the aircraft) and payment for his aircraft flying time, which if not shown as a separate charge, must be part of his total charge for the service rendered - thus in the view of the FOI constituted a commercial air service. I think I vaguely recall a Vet being questioned on a similar basis, but it would be at least 20 years ago.
No, not a trap at all and your assumption matches one of the CASA definitions. They are critical phrases which must/must not exist and are directly extracted from CAR206, however they are not included in the Definitions. They are the expressions CASA interpret in any way they see fit to suit the circumstances. There was a time they did have logical definitions, refer the pre 1988 Air Navigation Regulations from approximately ANR197 to ANR203.
From a aviation media article of 20 years ago:
At the direction of CASA's Canberra office, two investigators and one ... FOI conduct an investigation with the following terms of reference: "Determine the extent of operations in the Torres Strait region which are being conducted for fare paying passengers that fall into the definition of RPT and which are currently being conducted as charter." The TOR directed that: "The differentiation between RPT and charter that is to be used for this investigation shall be drawn from the "draft" paper prepared by ......... (a CASA lawyer) as attached."
The draft opinion ......... attempted to define the five elements which must exist to constitute RPT. However it provided no definitions of two of the critical elements: "Specific route" and "fixed terminal". The (CASA) investigators had thus been instructed to investigate whether operators were in breach not of a regulation or rule, but of a draft opinion, which failed to provide critical definitions.